This "Friends" Theory Might Finally Explain What Happened To Ross's Son

No one told Ross that life was gonna be this way.

Before taking the Tipton Hotel by storm on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Cole Spouse played Ross Geller's son, Ben, on Friends.

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Ross's ex-wife Carol gave birth to Ben during season one, and he made several appearances during the show's first eight seasons.

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But then something happened. Somewhere around the time Rachel gave birth to Emma, Ben seemingly vanished from Ross's life.

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To this day, Friends fans are still haunted by his mysterious disappearance.

kaila @KailaMusinski

*watches friends* *every season* but where is Ross's son tho..................FATHER OF THE YEAR

03:54 AM - 08 Aug 2015

Sure, Ben's departure could easily be explained by scheduling conflicts and/or storyline shifts, but what if his absence has a deeper meaning?

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Reddit user smokingcage suggests Carol became fed up with her ex-husband's crazy antics, and she went to court to take away Ross's visitation rights.

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Let's examine the evidence.

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1. Ross was a pretty lousy father.

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Why would Ross go through the trouble of building a replica of Ben, when he could just as easily have visited him at Carol and Susan’s? Clearly, he decided to take the easy way out, and his behavior suggests that he had become quite used to life without Ben.

In fact, Ben wasn't even present when Ross married Emily.

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Granted, the wedding was in London, but that didn't stop Jack and Judy Geller from flying out. How hard would it have been for them to take Ben, too? Conversely, Ben played a special role in Carol and Susan's wedding. It's a wonder why Ross didn't make the same effort.

Speaking of weddings, Ross blatantly ignored Ben during Monica and Chandler's reception.

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After his attempt to sit next to Mona failed, Ross was forced to take a spot at the kid's table. He ended up sitting next to his son, yet addressed the table as if he didn't know anyone. Apparently, there's a deleted scene from this episode where the two of them have a brief conversation. The tension in the air was palpable. Was this a sign that trouble was brewing?

And let's not forget about the time he went to great lengths to get his son to play with a G.I. Joe doll.

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Ross wasn't comfortable with Ben being himself and choosing to play with a Barbie, and so he tried to impose gender stereotypes on him. It's clear that he never abandoned these views, as he later scoffed at the idea of a male nanny. Carol probably wanted her son to be raised with a more tolerant world view.

2. Ross's behavior became increasingly worrisome as the show progressed.

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During the second half of the series, Ross dated a student, drunkenly got married in Vegas, was forced to take a leave-of-absence from work after verbally attacking a co-worker over a sandwich, and even tried to make a pass at his own cousin.

There was that time he tried to enlist a professional to help him scare Phoebe and Rachel.

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Would you want that man raising your child?

His personal life began to take a toll on his overall well-being.

After three divorces and several failed relationships, Ross's temper was at an all-time high. He was known to lash out at people, and he had a very short fuse. Carol probably recognized that he wasn't exactly a great paternal role model.

3. The timeline is slightly suspicious.

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Ben's last on-screen appearance was in the twelfth episode of the eighth season, The One Where Joey Dates Rachel. At the end of the episode, Ben and Ross walk in to find Phoebe screaming expletives over Ms. Pac-Man. Two episodes before, Phoebe tried to manipulate Ben in order to get tickets to see Sting. Could that have been Carol's breaking point? Perhaps after that visit, she decided that Ross and his friends were poor influences on her impressionable son.

His grandparents basically forgot he existed.

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Rachel gave birth to Emma in the final episode of the eighth season, presumably several months after Ben's last appearance. It's clear that he hadn't visited the Geller's in a while, as he was so far off Jack's radar. Why would Ross keep his son apart from his grandparents for so long? One possible solution is that Ross hadn't seen Ben in months, either.

There's no mention of Ben ever engaging with Emma.

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Fans love to blame Ross for forgetting about his son after Emma's birth, but what if he didn't have a choice? Assuming Carol took away Ross's visitation rights, there's little he could have done to unite his kids. It could explain why we never saw Ross's two children having an awkward yet endearing encounter.

So there you go.

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Ben's disappearance was no accident. Carol took matters into her own hands in order to give her son a better life. She spared Ben from childhood corrupted by his emotionally unstable dad.